By Orin DavidsonDec. 2nd, 2009
Cricket Council USA is aiming to take Twenty/20 cricket to another
level in the United States with a series of high profile competitions
beginning this weekend with the first staging the of U.S. Cricket
Open.

“We want to bring out the best in United States Twenty/20 cricket,
so we are investing heavily in it,” said Miller, vice president
Operations of the company.

Cricket Council USA is a sports and entertainment company based in
Florida where the action will get cracking this weekend involving
10 of the United States best T20 teams.

Miller pointed out that the company is a private entity and not a
part of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) ,
the national governing body or any of its regional affiliates.

“All of the best players will be on show, including the ones
preparing to represent the U.S.A in the T20 World Cup (preliminaries),“
added Miller, Carl Wright, Steve Massiah, Kevin Darlington, Orlando
Baker, Ryan Corns – the national junior MVP …. they will
be there”.

The company staged the TAQ T20 series last year when a number of past
Pakistani international players and some active ones along with a
few ex West Indian Test stars, christened the Broward County stadium.

Miller explained that the plan was to stage a bigger $100,000 competition
this year, but teams were affected by the nationwide recession which
resulted in the shelving of the event.
“But we intend to have it next year with about 14 teams including
two international ones from one of the Test playing countries,”
said Miller. “We have many other teams from Jamaica and other
parts of the region wanting to get involved”.

But for the time being, Cricket Council USA is putting its resources
into this weekend’s event which will have $10,000 at stake for
the winning team and involves the champion teams from five competitions
staged nationwide by CCUSA and specially invited ones.

Although New York was not the beneficiary of any of the preliminary
competitions, Miller said Bedessee Destroyers was chosen based on
its outstanding performance in winning the Dream Cricket20/20 Cup
that involved a number of top teams from the Tri State area.

Destroyers, has a collection of players from around the city at the
time, and not registered to any of the New York leagues, is among
a number of teams invited to the U.S. Open Cup. “We welcome
these teams even though they are not official part of a league, because
it is our intention to have the best players on show,” explained
Miller. “We want to expose any player who is good enough to
bring value to any team”.

United Chargers
which won the New York T20 Cup this year and comprises a number
was unavailable but a number of its players will show up in the
Washington Tigers lineup.

Next year, the series of countrywide competitions will be expanded
from which the U.S. teams will be selected for the $100,000 grand
finale. “This will be a continuous annual event, which we
expect to grow bigger over the years,” Miller said.

He added that the Cricket Council USA will not earn anything in
terms of revenue from this year’s series as it is being used
to promote the company’s brand. “All the matches will
be free to the public and there will be musical entertainment,”
the VP added.

The 10 competing teams are grouped in the American and National
Leagues where a round robin format of three matches per team will
determine the two finalists.

Matches are set in three sessions on Friday and Saturday beginning
from 9 am, 1pm and 4.30 pm while the final is slated for 12 noon
on Sunday following the semi-finals from 9 am.

Bedessee Destroyers is grouped in the American League with Miami
Thunder, Washington CC Redskins, US Tigers and US All Stars. Destroyers
will oppose Tigers, Redskins and Caribbean stars in the round robin
phase. The National League comprises Washington Tigers, Atlanta
Eagles, Connecticut Tigers, SGCC Blues and Caribbean Stars.